Differential recovery of volitional motor function, lateralized
cognitive function, dopamine agonist-induced rotation and dopaminergic
parameters in monkeys made hemi-parkinsonian by intracarotid MPTP
infusion
Source: Brain Res
1995 Feb;672(1-2):112-117.
Author: Schneider JS;Lidsky TI;Hawks T;Mazziotta JC;Hoffman JM PubMed ID: 7749732
Abstract:
There is still controversy regarding the frequency and extent of
spontaneous functional recovery in primate models of parkinsonism,
perhaps in part stemming from the variety of ways in which recovery has
been assessed. The present study examined functional recovery in monkeys
made unilaterally parkinsonian by intracarotid infusion of MPTP. Monkeys
were evaluated prior to lesioning and for at least 1 year after
lesioning on a battery of tests including a rating of spontaneous
behaviors, a learned reaction time/movement time task, tests of
lateralized neglect or inattention (i.e. lateralized reward retrieval
task, extinction with double simultaneous stimulation, and response to a
target moving from one hemispace to the other), and rotational asymmetry
in response to a dopamine agonist. Some animals also received
6-[18F]Fluoro-L-Dopa (F-DOPA) position emission tomography (PET) scans
before MPTP, when symptomatic, and when showing signs of functional
recovery. These animals were sacrificed for post mortem neurochemical
assessment following the last PET scan. Results showed that estimates of
functional recovery in hemi-parkinsonian monkeys may depend upon the
behavioral assay used. Even in behavioral tasks that were sensitive to
recovery effects, the degree of functional recovery shown by an animal
on one such task did not predict recovery on another. This may in part
be due to the inherent difficulty in designing behavioral tests to
assess basal ganglia functioning, when there is no consensus concerning
which aspects of behavior the normal basal ganglia actually
control.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)